You can run everyday. Why can’t you lift everyday, if that’s what your training consists of? Just as there’s tempo and speed work, it’s a matter of intensity- which can vary greatly. David, what percentages of RM would you use to define high, med, and low intensity? At such levels of proficiency, how will intensity vary by lift and rep nos? Also, the experience of some athletes that attended Bulgarian camps was that training was sometimes divided into 5 different sessions per day (no outside jobs there. Eh?) How would this affect the variability of intensity? (the last session of the day is, as a result, much closer to the first session of the next day- or the day after, for that matter) If high intensity sessions followed each other- for how long before a break?
Often, I have done weight training at home, allways barbell work. Often the barbell would be laying on the floor clogging up the room. So even on the day after training I would lift the bar to move it. Once the bar was lifted, I’d get the lifting buzz, and do a few reps or try something else like a differant exercise(dependant on how much weight was left on the bar.) Seeing as squats wer the staple of my program there would allways be a fair weight so low deadlifts would often be in there. if it was partially loaded, then high pulls or cleans. I can say that i never felt weaker the day after squats or heavy work. the reps would allways be very low though, becuase it was officially non lifting days. This is what lead me to believe that, if the exercises are differant and the reps low, then weightlifting/powerlifting could be done every day. I also believe that, if the person is not also doing much other training then the intensity can be kept pretty high aswell.
When the Canadian team trained there in the mid eighties, they saw the Bulgarian lifters throw up colossal weights, often ABOVE the world records, which they achieved after they’d “cleaned up”. Half the Canadian team quit after seeing “reality” up close.
Note that the olympic lifts have a very minimal eccentric phase as compared to sprinting, jumping and plyos. This may also contribute to a different effect on the CNS as well.
Charlie - I don’t believe I’ve ever advised a lifter with sufficient work capacity to train (in the gym) more than four days per week. Certainly in most cases lifters have continued to improve off only 3 specific sessions.
Weightlifting literature often suggests a light loading session helps increase recovery from a previous heavy session but I have never found that to be the case. I feel for none elite level lifters, it would increase fatigue or at best inhibit optimum recovery. I have however suggested active recovery between sessions e.g. swimming or low volume medicine ball work.
I recommend only one ‘heavy’ (95%+ given repetition maximum) workout per week for novice lifters (and sprinters) or two for intermediate lifters. THe exception is during impact weeks where volume is reduced to help compensate.
David
I assume that your 3 day program is EOD, but have you seen the use of 2 on 1 off, or 3 on 1 off schemes? I know the Russians often had form work days, where lifting was substantially sub-max. A friend’s son trained with both a Bulgarian and a Russian coach (both Olympic medallists) at different times in his lifting career, and found the Russian system to be far more tolerable.
[Reviving an old thread…]
Weightlifters lifting near max very often is not only a Bulgarian/Greek thing nowadays, it seems to be quite mainstream in modern O-lifting. Here is a US example:
Zatsioresky hypothesises that frequent sessions with less than optimum recovery induce an accumulation of fatigue but a greater super compensatory adaptation when a rest day is finanally taken…
…is true also for Hipertrophy?
There were some lifters testing positive for a diuretic. It wasn’t anabolics. Sure, it’s on the banned list, but if you think other olympic athletes aren’t supplementing with Dr. Zeigler’s Special Sauce, you are kidding yourself.
The other thing to keep in mind is that even limit snatches and cl&j are actually technical exercises rather than limit strenght exercises. An athlete that can cl&j 200kg usually has a clean pull in the 250-260 range and a front squat around 220 so there is a considerable strength reserve available. There is a difference between a limit o.lift and a limit strength lift. To give you an example, occasionaly a lifter will have a particularly bad day and miss 5, 6 or more limit snatches or cleans or miss the same number of lifts while attempting to reach a new personal record with no ill effects the next day. I’ve yet to see anyone attempt do the same with a limit deadlift, squat or bench press let alone survive it.
Those guys must’ve slept an awful lot. Also from what I understand their system was introduced to those at an early age and designed so that it would weed out the weak and the ones that could handle it would remain standing.